Sotirios Bahtsetzis is an art curator, essayist, researcher, higher education teacher, and creative industries consultant. He has published many research articles in scientific journals and is the author of several books and exhibition catalogs. He holds a summa cum laude Ph.D. in History of Art and an integrated M.A. in Critical History of Art (Kunstwissenschaft) from the Technische Universität Berlin. He is an alumnus of the Fulbright’s fellowship program (Columbia University, N.Y.) and has been awarded scholarships by the Berlin Funding for Graduates (NaFöG) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for his PhD research (title of the thesis: Geschichte der Installation. Situative Erfahrungsgestaltung in der Kunst der Moderne).
He is a tenured Associate Professor in Theory of Contemporary Art and Curating, Head of the Department of Culture, Creative Media and Industries, and Vice-Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Thessaly, Volos (GR).
He has taught as faculty staff at the Frances Rich School of Fine and Performing Arts and in the International Honors Program (IHP) of the Deree - The American College of Greece, Athens (GR), at the Architecture Department of Patras University (GR), the Architecture Department of the University of Thessalia (GR), the European Culture Program of the Hellenic Open University, Patras (GR), the National School of Dance in Athens (GR) the Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design at the London Metropolitan University (UK) and has been a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp (B), at Hyperwerk Institute for Postindustrial Design of the FHNW Academy of Art and Design, Basel (CH), the Museology - Cultural Management Postgraduate Program of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (GR) and a Research Scholar in the Modern Greek Seminar of the Columbia University, New York (USA). He has worked as a researcher at the Museum of Installation, London (GB) and the Athens School of Fine Arts (GR).
Bahtsetzis' research interests include Installation Art, Curating, Socially Engaged Art, Image Theory, Post-industrial Design, Media Theory, Gender Studies, and Posthumanities.
Bahtsetzis also works as an independent curator. Major group exhibitions include Going Viral (Berlin in 2022), Homemade Exotica (Berlin in 2019), Universitas (in the context of Athens Biennial in 2017), Roaming Images Routes (in the context of Thessaloniki Biennial in 2011), Paint-id: Contemporary Painting in Greece (at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art in 2009), and Open Plan (in the 13th Art Athina in 2007). Bahtsetzis is also the Research Director of ArtBOX, and worked on a number of projects such as LABattoir. Art for Social Change (Municipality of Thessaloniki), Artecitya. Envisioning the City of Tomorrow (Goethe Institut Thessaloniki); EnterViews on Crisis, Roaming Images. Crossroads of Greek and Arab Culture Through the Eyes of Contemporary Artists (MMCA). Bahtsetzis is responsible for the curation of the art collection of the G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation. He is also Co-Director of AthenSYN, an initiative aiming at building an infrastructure and a network to foster the presentation of Greek contemporary art internationally. Bahtsetzis is a member of the editorial board of Aletheia. Journal for Philosophy, Psychoanalysis and Art.
Bahtsetzis also works as an independent curator. Major group exhibitions include Going Viral (Berlin in 2022), Homemade Exotica (Berlin in 2019), Universitas (in the context of Athens Biennial in 2017), Roaming Images Routes (in the context of Thessaloniki Biennial in 2011), Paint-id: Contemporary Painting in Greece (at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art in 2009), and Open Plan (in the 13th Art Athina in 2007). Bahtsetzis is also the Research Director of ArtBOX, and worked on a number of projects such as LABattoir. Art for Social Change (Municipality of Thessaloniki), Artecitya. Envisioning the City of Tomorrow (Goethe Institut Thessaloniki); EnterViews on Crisis, Roaming Images. Crossroads of Greek and Arab Culture Through the Eyes of Contemporary Artists (MMCA). Bahtsetzis is responsible for the curation of the art collection of the G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation. He is also Co-Director of AthenSYN, an initiative aiming at building an infrastructure and a network to foster the presentation of Greek contemporary art internationally. Bahtsetzis is a member of the editorial board of Aletheia. Journal for Philosophy, Psychoanalysis and Art.
Bahtsetzis has chapters in various books, including Semiotics and Visual Communication III: Cultures of Branding (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019) Meta- and Inter-Images in Contemporary Visual Art and Culture (Leuven University Press, 2013), Kinematographische Räume in Film und Kunst (Fink, 2012) and Inaesthetics 3 (Merve, 2012) as well as articles in journals such as E-flux and Afterimage. Bahtsetzis writes essays accompanying group and one-man exhibitions. He is a member of the IKT (International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art), AICA (International Art Critics Association), and the AAMC (Association of Art Museum Curators), among other professional bodies.
